ASMED organises dialogue session on banking services that support SMEs in Oman

Muscat: The Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises Development (ASMED) on Wednesday organised a dialogue session in Muscat on banking services that support small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The session discussed policies and legislation supporting banking services, licences required to provide these services and factors that support the sector, like partnership and training programmes, incentives, incubators, business accelerators and financing.

In particular, the session stressed the importance of partnerships between banking institutions and SMEs and means to identify major challenges that limit performance. A total of 149,219 from different governorates had been registered under the banner of ASMED by the end of March 2025. Of those, 27,611 had obtained an Entrepreneurship Card.

The session was part of a programme conducted by ASMED to promote public-private sector partnerships and enable SMEs to meet challenges, achieve sustainable growth and enhance the entrepreneurship climate.

The dialogue session was attended by Halima Rashid Al Zar'ee,Chairperson of the Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises Development (ASMED), Rashid Zayid Al Ghassani, Deputy Chairman for Supervision and Regulation at the Central Bank of Oman, and officials, specialists and representatives of small and medium enterprises.